Sketches from Nature. 313 



Scotch variety of this species, which does not 

 change the colour of its fur in winter, is there 

 called the blue hare. 



Another interesting example of creatures 

 which are brown in summer and white in winter 

 is the ermine. This is still a fairly common 

 British fur animal, and the change may therefore 

 be watched without going far afield. In the fur 

 countries of high latitudes the change is univer- 

 sal ; while here, except in unusually severe win- 

 ters, it is only partial. In the Lake District, 

 where we have observed a considerable number 

 of these animals, a purely white one is exceed- 

 ingly rare, though pied specimens are not at all 

 uncommon. The nearest general approach to 

 whiteness was during the prolonged severity of 

 the winter of 1 880-81. The last colour about 

 to vanish is usually a brown stripe, prolonged 

 posteriorly down the back ; though when the 

 weather is of extreme severity the whole transi- 

 tion can be brought about within a fortnight. 

 It is not that the summer fur is cast and a new one 

 substituted for it, but that each individual hair 

 changes colour. Cold artificially applied will in 

 time bring about the same results as a naturally 

 severe temperature. 



There arrive every year in this country, from 

 the north, flocks of pretty little birds called 

 snow-buntings. They come from within the 

 Arctic Circle, and are so variable in their plu- 



